This photo was taken by Noah Elwood Weaver in 1952. This is how remember my Glessner grandparents when I visited them as a young boy. Harry C Glessner was the president of the Glessner Company and had taken over from his father, Leonard Cowles Glessner in running the company. He introduced new products, such as Keen Shaving Cream and I remember visiting the factory on E Sandusky Street when glass bottles were filled as samples at that location. Both of my grandfathers continue to influence my interest in being an entrepreneur.
Leonard C Glessner began making Dr Drakes German Croup Remedy out of his Findlay home in 1889 and founded the Glessner Medicine Company in 1905 as a stock company. In 1912 the word German was removed prior to the WW I antipathy toward German people and the language in America. He built this brick factory on E Sandusky Ave in Findlay that I visited in the 1950's when they were still bottling product at this location. Pain a Lay, developed by Harry Chappelear Glessner, son of Len, from a formula used by dentists in St Louis, still has a following and sales, that I and my family receive residual income from even after the company was sold in 1962, when operations creased in Findlay after 73 years of production.
Dr Drakes Croup and Cough Medicine was the original brand started by Len C Glessner. Softskin was a brand that my mom remembered packaging during the great depression with multicolored bags. The patent was later sold to Vicks I understand.
Pain a Lay is still marketed through Roberts Proprietaries in New York, New Jersey, and amazingly our family still receives royality checks some 40 years after Harry C Glessner sold the business
